1 in 4 charter schools closes in year 5, wasting millions in taxpayer dollars. #schoolchoice = wrong choice for American taxpayers. Read more in our latest report Charter School Reckoning Part II Explained networkforpubliceduc...

As Texans statewide question vouchers, join the voucher Week of Action to make three simple asks: 🔎 Put transparency first 💰 Protect taxpayer dollars ⚖️ Ensure fairness for students bit.ly/KeepVouchersOut

3) @josephinelee.bsky.social at the @texasobserver.org finds that many private schools accepted into the program openly discriminate by religion and sexual orientation - while rural Texans have few private school options at all. bsky.app/profile/texa...

2) Y'all-itics concludes "It's not school choice. It's the school's choice" following an interview with the Texas Comptroller. @wfaach8.bsky.social wfaa.com/yallitics

1) @abc13houstontexas.bsky.social reports that "choice is not an option when [families] have to pay hundreds in fees up front." abc13.com/post/front-f...

🧵 2 weeks before Texas opens a $1b taxpayer-funded voucher program for parent applications and Texans are raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and fairness in the program. #txed

Join public education supporters from across the state from February 2 to February 6 to highlight public school success stories and show that #TexansChoosePublicSchools. Let’s work together to show Texans that our public schools continue to be the best option in the state! #txed

🧵 2 weeks before Texas opens a $1b taxpayer-funded voucher program for parent applications and Texans are raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and fairness in the program. #txed

Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles played a central role early in negotiations for a nearly $1 million contract between a Texas charter school network and a for-profit Colorado consulting firm. via @nusaiba.bsky.social + @houstonchronicle.com www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

This Feb 2-Feb 6, join public education supporters for a statewide voucher week of action. Together, we can show that Texans demand transparency, accountability, and fairness for public school students. Join the next phase of the fight: bit.ly/KeepVouchersOut. #txed

Important and alarming reporting on the private schools currently enrolled in Texas' voucher program ⬇️

🚨🚨 ❌ >70% TX counties currently have NO elementary, junior, or senior high schools accepting vouchers. ❌ ~1/3 schools charge tuition > the voucher amount for most participants. Few provide special ed. ❌ 100+ schools prioritize admitting students of the same faith. #txed

Check out our January newsletter at bit.ly/OSODNewsletter to catch up on: 🎉 OSOD's new executive director! ⛪ The first private schools that have joined Texas' taxpayer-funded voucher program ❌ Continued charter school closures #txed

According to the Comptroller, 775 schools are signed up to participate in Texas' taxpayer-funded voucher program. As rural Texans warned, there are few options in rural districts - although all Texans will pay for the $1b+ program. Top ranked private schools have so far not applied. #txed

ICYMI: the TX Comptroller is asking to bar certain schools from the voucher program based on their alleged relationships to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (the largest Muslim civil rights group in the nation) and the Chinese government. www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/tex...

"The closure of 17 charter districts in 2 yrs is a record compared to recent yrs" [email protected] It's alarmingly clear that charter saturation & insufficient state oversight have real consequences for TX families. www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

"State auditors found 299 instances where students had unspent balances above that mark to an excess of $2.3m. But more pressing is the topline number of >$400m sitting in student accounts as of the end of last school yr." politi.co/3YrhPM9 via @politico.com

ICYMI: Last November, the nationally recognized non-profit think tank RAND released a sweeping report on AZ’s ESA voucher program. Read the full report at bit.ly/VoucherReport

We're so excited to announce Carrie Griffith as Our Schools Our Democracy's new executive director! With nearly 30 yrs of service in public education, Carrie is a passionate advocate who will lead our work to protect the rights of all Texans to a free, quality public education.

One of our most-read stories of 2025: This Charter School Superintendent Makes $870,000. He Leads a District With 1,000 Students. (Published March 2025 with @texastribune.org)

Last month, OSOD submitted comments with concerns about federal vouchers: ❌ Harm to students, public schools, and our communities 🔎 Lack of accountability and transparency ⚖️ Equity, civil rights, & nondiscrimination concerns Full comments: bit.ly/OSODinAction #txed

"If the program is not run in a completely transparent way, where people are keeping tabs on those things along the way, stuff might get out of control before people realize it happens...how do we make sure that that doesn’t happen in TX? The biggest [way] is information and transparency." #txed

Reflecting back on a busy 2025! Here's to a new year where we continue to grow, build community, and strengthen our shared commitment to our neighborhood public schools ✨

"The State Board of Education voted in 2021 to open the school. The construction of the campus, which opened in 2023, cost nearly $18 million."

"The timeline for the initial rollout may box out the very families it has vowed to help because of admission deadlines at a wide array of private schools." @houstonchronicle.com www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

"On any given day, FL’s education dept did not know where 30k students were going to school & could not account for the $270m in taxpayer funds it took to support them, according to the state Senate Appropriations Cmte on Pre-K-12 Educ." @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

‼️ Important new report from the Nat'l Center for Charter School Accountability

Did you miss our December newsletter? Catch up on our latest news and updates now at bit.ly/OSODNewsletter, and make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletters!

🚨 "The comptroller rejected a slate of measures pushed by public education groups as a way to add more accountability to the program." From @houstonchronicle.com www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/tex...

“Given Odyssey’s track record of operational mismanagement and misuse of state funds in much smaller voucher programs, Texans should sound the alarm about the Comptroller’s decision to entrust Odyssey with $1 billion of our taxpayer dollars and the educational outcomes of our children"

The company that won the contract to run Texas' new school voucher program leans on former Abbott aides for help www.texasobserver.org/texas-vouche...

New from @byjustinmiller.bsky.social: Even as the lege debated school vouchers, corporate voucher vendors were already competing behind the scenes for the lucrative contract. A closer look at how Odyssey became the big winner... and whose influence helped make the decision.

Did you miss our November newsletter? Catch up on our latest news and updates now at bit.ly/OSODNewsletter, and make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletters!

Keep track of the Comptroller’s role in Texas’ voucher program: osod.org/take-action-...

Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year signed a law authorizing a $1 billion private school voucher program, tapping the state comptroller’s office as the entity responsible for its creation. Here’s what you need to know about the comptroller’s role in shaping the voucher program.

The state takeover of Fort Worth ISD comes despite the recent closure of a TEA-approved charter school which was the lowest scoring Fort Worth ISD elementary school within 3 miles of its campuses. #txed

Our Facing Facts report estimates Austin ISD lost $624m to charters in 2020-2024. From transport (which 47% of charters spend $0 to provide) to teachers (most of whom aren't req'd to be certified at charters), a district can't just cut costs $ for $. www.statesman.com/news/educati...

❓ How do our state $$ flow from the Legislature to private schools? 🧐 What's a certified educational assistance organization & why are they getting $26m? 🔍 Who decides if a student will be admitted to private school (hint: not parents)? osod.org/take-action-... #txed

Texans deserve transparency into the $1b+ voucher program to prevent questionable spending like: 🧱 $1m on Legos (AZ) 🎢 State funds spent on Disney & Sea World passes (FL) Learn more & get involved: osod.org/take-action-... #txed

Did you miss last spring's hearing where Texans stayed at the Capitol for 22 hours to testify against vouchers? Need to catch up on the years of data on voucher failures in other states? Our Schools Our Democracy has you covered: osod.org/take-action-... #txed

Vouchers may be law but Texans haven't stopped fighting for our public schools 💪 Our Schools Our Democracy has created a new online resource to help you track the voucher rollout: osod.org/take-action-against-vouchers/ #txed

The Comptroller has chosen Odyssey to run TX’s voucher program. But check receipts (& not just the up to $50m in state funds that we could pay Odyssey just in the next 2 yrs). Odyssey has an alarming record of mismanagement, delayed payments, & inflated costs in multiple states. buff.ly/BuV0D4w

With our Private School Demographics database, you can look up detailed demographic information about thousands of private schools across the country and compare them to nearby public schools. Check it out ⤵️

Did you miss our October newsletter? Catch up on our latest news and updates now at bit.ly/OSODNewsletter, and make sure to sign up at our website for our monthly newsletters! #txed

🗣️ “Texans should know how our taxpayer dollars are being spent, especially as the $1b budget for year one of this program is likely to increase in the future,” said Maggie Stern, director of community engagement for the public education advocacy group Our Schools Our Democracy.

Texans ask for eligibility fixes, stronger accountability in school voucher program.

Today the Comptroller heard public comments on proposed rules for the new voucher program. Alongside other public school advocates, OSOD raised concerns about public transparency into this $1,000,000,000+ program. Read our full comments at osod.org/osod-comment... #txed

This week, Our Schools Our Democracy testified to the State Board of Education on alarming trends among newer Texas charter campuses: underperformance, under-enrollment, and high rates of closure. #txed

Earlier this year, we revealed three charter leaders in TX who have made hundreds of thousands on top of what's been reported to the state. New accountability ratings show that each of their districts have failing or near-failing performance. One may be shut down. www.propublica.org/article/texa...

📣NPE’s National Center for Charter School Accountability (NCCSA), provides research & recommendations on increasing transparency & accountability for charter schools. Find it here on our website networkforpubliceduc...